The Seven Sentence Story

By nakae via foter.com

The title of my blog mentions that I am a neophyte writer, and I mean it. I’m really new. I am writing a novel for the very first time. I am unschooled and inexperienced. So, when I stumble upon a little tool like The Seven Sentence Story structure, I get really jazzed.

Sometimes, when I sit down to write, I have a really hard time getting started. I need some sort of warm up. Often, I read the last chapter I wrote, or my favourite chapter. But today, I read my outline, and wow, did I find some holes.  I stared blankly at it, temporarily defeated.

So, I surfed. I checked out my blog and admired my little Goodreads widget, the one that shows, in little thumbnails, all the books that I’ve read in the last several years. I saw one of them, and I admit, I was a little embarrassed that it was there. Out of curiosity I clicked on it to see if I’d reviewed it, and I had. I read my review and scrolled down and read some more reviews (most of which were much more virulent than mine) and one of the reviewers tried to show the plotless-ness of the book by applying the Seven Sentence Story structure to it. This structure, transposed over that story, showed how abysmally plotted it was (or rather, wasn’t), which was fun to read, and it offered a really keen insight into the tent poles of story. I applied it to my WIP, and it forced me back further than I'd wanted to go; but once I hunkered down and repositioned (and re-wrote) the major stepping stones, I had a much stronger, and more helpful outline. YAY!

I was so excited about it that as soon as I was finished typing up the new outline, I published this post. I’m sure many of you know of the Seven Sentence Story already, but just in case you don’t, here it is (as per Edward Willet):

1. Introduce what the main character wants and the first action he/she takes to accomplish the goal.
2. The results of the action the character takes from sentence #1 has to make the situation worse.  The character should be farther from the goal now. 
3. Based on the new situation, the character takes a second action to accomplish the goal.
4. The results of the second action the character takes from sentence #3 is to make the situation worse.  The character should be even farther from the goal now.  
5. Based on the new situation, the character takes a third and final action to accomplish the goal.  
6. This third action either accomplishes the character’s goal, fails to accomplish the goal, or there is an unusual but oddly satisfying different result of the last action.  
7. The denouement.  This sentence wraps the story up.  It could tell the reader how the character felt about the results, or provide a moral, or tell how the character’s life continued on.

Cheers!

AJ

The Not-So-Tangled Web

RickyNJ / Foter

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve gone back to the beginning of my antagonist’s journey to make sure I really know him and understand him; to flesh him out. I learned some really cool stuff about him and how his journey leads him, inevitably, to the climax of the book. His story is compelling and hopefully, he’ll come off that way on the page. 

Because compelling is what we want.

Are all my character’s compelling? Does their journey lead them, inexorably, to the conclusion I have in mind for them?

Well, to make sure, I’m re-constructing my outline from each character’s perspective. Plotting the points of connectivity among all the characters’ timelines. It’s amazing to see how each of them follows their own path to a point of crisis together.

I’m sure I’m not the first one to come up with this idea, but it feels freakin’ brilliant; and I’m stoked at all the sub-plots that are introducing themselves. What crazy, heartbreaking, fateful lives my characters have led.

It’s a not-so-tangled web of stories that must lead, with logic and causality, to the resolution of the plot. Like a spider’s web, each strand is woven in and around the others until they are all massed together at the strongest point of the structure, the centre. Or, for the purpose of my metaphor, the climax of the story.

So, perhaps, if you’re finding a need for depth in your writing, try seeing the story from a satellite character’s point of view. It may get you over a plateau, out of your writer’s block, or maybe even lead you into a sequel (yay!); either way, it will strengthen your bond with your characters and hopefully, your readers’ bond also.